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or punitive juftice. Plutarch has his tract, De ferà Numinis vindictà. The Poet can fay, Raro antecedentem fceleftum deferuit pede pæna claudo. The earth is full of divine judgments, or the awful demonstrations of divine. juftice. Many are cut off in their fins, as if they were not to be forgiven. Many are fo punished, as if it were defign'd, that their fin fhould be read in their punifhment. Upon commiffion of notorious fin, confcience is fo terrify'd, that many choofe ftrangling and death, rather than the horrors of their own mind; occultum quatiente intus tortore. flagellum. And our Author fays, (p. 126.) They (the rational Beings) ought to keep it well imprefl upon their minds, that he (GOD) is the Being, upon whom their very exiftence depends, &c. That they are always in his prefence; that he is a Being of perfect reafon; that if it be reasonable, that the tranf greffors of reafon fhould be punished, they will, most certainly, one time or other be punished.

Here a punitive juftice is attributed to GOD, as. a Being of perfect reafon.. We must fuppofe, that. the tranfgreffors of divine law are the tranfgreffors of reafon (of divine and human reafon). Now if all the tranfgreffors of reafon (i. e. all finners) must,. one time or other, be moft certainly punifh'd (and that as far as divine reafon, that is, juftice, fhall require) then, I fear, there will be no room for par don. And then, the Religion of Nature, I fear will perish.

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It is faid (as has been seen already) that, perhaps, mercy and juftice may more properly be called together, divine reafon. It is ufually noted, that reason fignifies either the intellective power, or the act of ratiocination. That divine mercy and juftice are to be look'd upon as the intellective power, or the intellect of GOD, I fuppofe, the theological world, will fcarce admit. And the fame world is wont to fuppofe alfo, that ratiocination is too imperfect an act, to be afcrib'd to the infinite intellect. But let mercy and juftice together, be called divine reason, and the divine reafon, thereupon, fuftain the notion both of mercy and of juftice. Then, if divine reafon, under the notion of mercy, judges it reasonable, that pardon fhould be granted to the world, and that as far as perfect (i. e. infinite) mercy will allow, then there may be no place for certain punishment. How then shall we know the meafures or methods of divine reason, confidered as mercy and as juftice? or, the more incompetent our reason is to adjust the process of divine reafon (and to be fure, its thoughts are not as ours) and to determine the modes and methods of divine mercy and justice, the more we shall need fome fuperior information, to certify us in fuch momentous affairs of the divine government.

If the divine reafon is, and must be, concern'd in the divine government; and that reason is mercy and juftice, then mercy and juftice muft both be concern'd and employ'd in the government of this world. Then, fhall we not rationally suppose, that they must act together (being both the divine reason) in most wife

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wife harmony and fweet confort? And fo, if divine reafon confider'd as me.y, determines that forgiveness and impy thall be granted to the world, it must determine it in conjunction with reafon, confider'd as juftice. And fo, it must be determin'd, that the defign'd forgiveness and impunity fhall be granted in fuch a way and upon fuch a foot, as fhall be congruous to the honour and regard, that must be had of divine juftice. And fo it may be rationally and congruously determin'd, that the pardon and impunity, that is mercifully defign'd for mankind, fhall be founded upon a rich and fuitable propitiation (or propitiatory facrifice) offer'd up to divine juftice. Here mercy and juftice will embrace each other in the adminiftrations of divine reafon. Here's wonderful mercy in refolving upon forgiveness for fuch defpicable delinquents, when it is well seen, at the fame time (or in the fame instant of reason) that juftice must be folv'd and fatisfy'd.

Here's foveraign favour and grace (in conjunction with reafon, confider'd as wifdom) in providing (for human reafon cannot) and admiting the propitiation or piacular victim. Here's fupreme juftice in apprehending and flaying the pure, piacular victim, instead of the tranfgreffors themfelves, who are, in due time, to be discharged. This method will much more comport with divine reason (in which justice and mercy. are funpos'd to be connected, and are jointly to be confider'd) than will a mere gratuitous pardon, in which no fuitabĺ. is paid to divine juftice. And ivine reason, we are led to a 1. These rational Beinifice, in which (or in whom, cording to truth) must end、

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as being a perfonal facrifice) we have redemption through his blood, even the remillion of fins, according to the riches of divine grace; the bich (orace) he hath abounded towards us in all wisdom and pridence (in all the mysterious depths of divine reafon, confider'd as wifdom, as well as mercy or juftice). Thus divine reafon will lead us to a propitiation of justice. Then

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2. Confideration may be had of the Author's rule of truth. The conduct and actions of rational Beings are fo to be order'd, that no truth (either of facts or propofitions) is to be denied. Since this rule is fet up antecedently to the confideration of the divine existence, it should seem to be a rule, by which all intelligent Beings are to be guided; and confequently, the divine Being, as well as others. In the dispensation, then, of forgiveness to the world, the divine Being will fo act, as not to deny himself, or any perfection of his own nature, which naturally occurrs to be difplayed. But fhould he vouchfafe an abfolute, gratuitous forgivenefs (without confulting the honour of his juftice or righteousness, in a valuable propitiation) he will feem to deny his juftice, or the excellency of it, or the high regard and deference that is to be paid thereto.

3. Confideration fhould be had, whether they may not be pertaining to the divine Reing, fomething analogous to what, in fuperiors as of this wonence. is called, fenfe of honour; ofe, that they mult is but a due care to act acce divine reason) in most

fphere and dignity. The divine Being cannot but be confcious of his own incomparable perfection and effential glory, of his tranfcendent dominion and authority, and of the vast obligation he has laid upon all intelligent Beings (whose effence and powers he upholds) to regard his law and will. And if, in this view of his own incomparable glory, he fees it unmeet and unsuitable to his matchless Highness and Grandeur, to forgive a world of impiety (idolatry, enmity, blafphemy, and all manner of abomination) committed against himself, without a fuitable, vast propitiation, what has the world to fay against it! furely, reafon (the reafon of nature; or the nature of things) has fomething to fay, that the religion of guilty nature (if there be any fuch religion, which must thepend upon divine forgiveness of fin) fhould be *rounded upon fome great and glorious propitiation, prefented to the Majefty of heaven.

VI. But let us fuppofe, that forgiveness of fin is defign'd for the guilty world, and thereupon is fome way or other, by the GOD of nature, and by the light of nature, revealed there, for the fupport and encouragement of the Religion of Nature, (if thou, Lord, Jhouldft mark iniquities, O Lord, who fall ftand (in thy prefence?) But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayeft be fear'd, mayeft be religiously attended and adored) then, there will rationally enfue fuch articles of the Religion of Nature, as thefe.

1. These rational Beings (fince they must act according to truth) muft endeavour to be apprehenfive d

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